SOLID STUBBORN STOKE

TOTTENHAM HOTSPURS 0 STOKE CITY FC 0

Another good and hard earned point for The Mighty Potters,against a team who could have gone to third in the table with a win. The first half was comfortable with our prime chance falling to the busy Kenwyne Jones. In the event he blazed the ball over the bar.What would Crouchie have done with this opportunity?

Kenwyne was quick enough to intercept a poor Spurs square pass....to make the chance. Not sure that Crouch would have got to the ball. However,hypothetical though it may be,had Crouch found himself in the shooting position that KJ enjoyed,the probability is that he would have scored.

There you have it,in the final third of the pitch we are not sharp enough,annoyingly close but not quite there,as regards having what it takes to be a top six team. Defensively we were excellent,solid and resilient especially in the second half when Spurs upped the ante. Begovic had little to do,well shielded by organised outfield players.

Ryan Shawcross had a tremendous game,he clearly could not give a twopenny stuff for the vitriolic garbage about him spewing from the media. The stuff ,as instanced,by The Daily Mail,which has him has the villain of the piece in the Fellani incident(s) rather than the victim. In fact through the week different journalists on the same paper have developed and embellished this theme. 

My recollection of the game was that both sides were physical,and that there was plenty of close contact; that the Belgian was putting himself about and then lost it!! The Mail's 'campaign ' culminated in a farcical article by Martin Keown yesterday,bearing a scandalous title ,which included the words 'sly Shawcross'.(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2251907/Martin-Keowns-boot-room-Marouane-Fellaini-headbutt-wrong-sly-Ryan-Shawcross-defence.html)

Monumentally hypocritical from a player I recall being well versed in the dark arts of defending, AND APPLYING THEM.An angel he was not!